Building a tabernacle of meeting: Lingering in His presence

This week, I contemplated the question - "What happens after we have been in the weighted glory-presence of God?" What comes after that?  For a while I had no answer, until Ex 33:11 caught my attention.  It says the following:

¹¹ The Lord spoke with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his assistant, the young man Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the inside of the tent.

There are two very different people in this verse with very different ways of relating to God.  Both had an amazing relationship with God, although in different ways.  There was a conversation between God and Moses, a face to face conversation "just as a man speaks with his friend". No doubt Moses discussed all kinds of things with God, presumably how to govern and lead the people, etc.  When the conversation was over, he returned to the camp with an array of wisdom and know-how to go about his daily tasks. This was the basis of Moses's leadership and no doubt this is what made him a great leader.  Not without mistakes, but still a man that the Lord spoke to as one speaks to a friend. 

Joshua on the other hand, 'would not leave the inside of the tent'.  Joshua remained in the presence of the Lord for as long as he possibly could.  It was not quite the time yet for Joshua to lead.  It was his time to soak up the presence of God in his spirit in preparation for leadership.  It was his time to get to know the voice of God.  To get to know the heart of God so that when his time of leadership would come, he would be well prepared to know what God's voice sounded like.  It would bring him to a place where he would understand that, if God gives him uncommon ideas or unusual strategies to take on the enemy, he can trust that voice of God because he has heard and experienced God in the tent of meeting so many times before, that he could be sure that the unusual, uncommon and sometimes illogical things he was going to hear in future was God's voice and His way of dealing with a particular situation.  In short, He was getting to know God's unusual side.  

Both these men, with their vastly different ways of engaging with God in different times in history, were men of God that walked out their callings, although different, still with amazing efficacy.  Yes they made mistakes.  Moses took God's glory and could not enter the promised land because of that.  Joshua did not ask God's counsel in the matter of the Gibeonites and entered into a covenant that was not originally part of the plan for Israel, yet in general both men accomplished their callings because they were in the presence of God.  

So let us linger a little longer in the presence of God.  Let's just be with Him in whichever key of music it comes for you, get to know His voice, so that when the usual or the unusual wisdom of God comes our way we will be so used to His presence and what His voice sounds like that we will not doubt or second guess whether it is Him.

Let us accept the invitation of God to 'Come to Him and to linger in His Presence'  

 Come to Me - Jenn Johnson